Hand-bag lock



B-. J. RICHARDSON AND C. S. BARBER.

HAND BAG LOCK. AFPLICATION FILED JUNE 22. 1920.

Patented Oct. 10, 1922..

Patented Get. 10, 1922.

siren earns BRODIE J. RICHARDSON AND CLAIRE S. BARBER, OF WATERBURY, CONNECTICUT.

HAND-BAG- LOCK.

Application filed June 22, 1920. Serial No. 390,746.

1 '0 all whom it may concern Be it known that we, BRODIE J. RICHARD- soN and CLAIRE S. BARBER, citizens otthe United States, and residents, respectively, of Waterbury, in the county of New Haven and State of Connecticut, have jointly invented certain new and useful Improvements in Hand-Bag Locks, which improvements are fully set forth in the following specification.

This invention relates to improvements in devices of that class available conjunctively with a suitable tenoned hasn for looking together the customary hinged frame-sections of a hand-bag or the like, such devices being well-designated hand-bag locks.

The object of this invention is to provide a lock of the character above indicated, which shall be simple and comparatively in expensive as regards its-construction; which shall embody certain novel features of construction whereby the tumbler oi the device may be manipulated for bolt-controlling purposes, either directly by finger-pressure or indirectly through the medium of a key, at the option of the user; which shall'be durable, efficient and reliable in practical service; and which shall possess certain welldefined advantages over prior analogous constructions.

Theinvention consists in the novel combinations, details and parts, hereinafter more specifically referred to and set forth in the appended claims,and whereby the'at tainment of the foregoing obj ect is rendered practicable. V

The invention is clearly illustrated in the accompanying drawing, wherein:

Fig. l is a top plan view oi? a hand-bag look embodying our said improvements, the depressible finger-piece being shown partly in horizontal section and the top segment of the housing being partly removed.

Fig. 2 is a rear elevation of same, the de pressible finger-piece being shown partly in central, vertical section.

Fig. 3 is a central-vertical. transverse sec' tion, as along the dotted line 33 of Fig. 2. Fig. 4 is a detail, transverse section, as along the dotted line 4L4 of Fig. 2. v

F ig. 5 is a view showing in perspective and detached the laterally shiftalble tumbler made use of.

Fig. 6 is a detail perspective view showing more particularly our improved lock in its application to the usual hinged frame-sections of a hand-bag.

Fig. 7 is a detail sectional view showing {1181; application ofa key to our improved Having reference to the accompanying drawing, wherein similar reference-numerals denote like parts throughout the several views, we provide, in carrying out our present invention, a general housing formed from metal in suitable sheet-term, and consisting by preference of a base 2, top segment 2, front wall 3 and oppositend-walls 4., 4. Afcentering-spindle 3 is firmly secured at its lower end to the base 2, and at such a point therealong as to rise fixedly therefrom centrally within the housing aforenamed.

5 is an operatingbolt, centered in its verti cal movements by means of the centering spindle 3 though indirectly so in this in stance, as will be later explained; and 5 is an evener, correspondingly centered in its vertical movements and underlying medially and acting as a unit with, the bolt aforenamed.

The bolt 5 is fitted with opposite recesses 6, 6, freely occupied, respectively, by the opposite lugs 7, 7 with which the evener 5 is provided; and between the latter and, say, a suitable bridge-piece 8, there is interposed a main spring 8', said spring being preferably of'the spiral type, encircling the centering-spindle aforenamed, and serving the dual purposes of exerting without interruption a yielding stress both downwardly on the bridge-piece aforenamed and upwardly, though indirectly in this instance through the inediumof the evener 5, on the operating-bolt 5, whereby the latter is held yieldingly protracted under normal conditions.

The bolt 5' supports an independently operable catch 9',engagable with the tenon, as 10, of a hasp, as 10, under incessant control of a suitable resilient medium 11, preferably in the form of a vspiral spring, and being best employed in duplicate at the opposite end-portions of said bolt, substantially as shown.

As here shown the bolt 5 embodies a medial, horizontal section 11, merged into a somewhat depressed, lateral horizontal section 12, which, in turn, is merged, through the medium of a down-turned coi'inccting section 12', into areturned horizontal terminal 13, underlying the depressed, lateral section at'orenamed, the catch atorenamed, suitably elongated to this end, piercing and operating in said terminal and the member 12 thercabove jointly, and the resilient medium 11, when taking t-hetorm of a spiral. spring, encircling said catch between thescction 12 and the terminal 13, bearingat its lower end on the latter and at its upper end on said catch, as through the medium of a collar .13 atl'orded thereby, and whereby the catch is held at all times yieldingly protracted.

14 is a hollow finger-piece rising upwardly from the bolt 5 through and suitably beyond the top-plate 2' of the housing, and whereby said bolt may bedepressed by finger-pressure applied thereto by the user, and against the normal stress of the main spring 8, said finger-piece being fitted with a suitable keyhole, as 14:, at its crown, while the medial sectionll, of the bolt 5 is fitted with a suitable key-way 15, similar in form to the keyhole 14. I

We further provide an upright key-way finder, which comprises an enlarged medial segment 16, disposed to rotate between the medial section 11', of the bolt 5, and the evener 5 thereunder; a minor reduced extension'lfi, projecting downwardly through the evener 5 and freely-engaging, telescopically, the centering-spindle 3 thereunder; and a main extension 16", the latter projecting upwardly freely through the section 11 and further upwardly and through the crown of the finger piece 14:, substantially as shown.

Said key-way finder is provided with a longitudinal, laterally open,key-passage 17, which extends from its upper exposed end continuously along its main extension 16" and including its medialsegment 16, and terminating approximately at the base of the latter.

Taking the construction as thus far described, it will be seen that depression of the finger-piece 14 will result in depression of the bolt 5, including the catch carried thereby, and whereby the latter may be released from its engagement withthetenon of a co operating hasp, as 10; and which catch, being operable independently of said bolt, may be raused to snap into engagement with the tenon of such co-operating lhasp, even though said bolt be locked against depression, a feature which constitutes an important characteristic of our present invention.

An additional important-characteristic of our present invention resides in the provision of a novel bolt-locking medium, ey-

operable or finger-operable at the option of the user, said medium consisting in thi instance of a suitable tumbler 17, here shown as being slidable in the housing of the device, and. fitted with a shoulder 18, or its equivalent, adapted to pass closely under some portion of the bolt 5, as, say, its depressed horizontal section 12, and upon the tumbler being duly manipulated, whereby the said bolt becomes locked against depression.

To the end that the tumbler 17 may be shifted or caused, indirectly through the medium of a key, as 18', to slide within or relatively to the housing of our improved lock, said tumbler is provided with a primaryrecess 19, adapted toreceive the lug, as 19, ot' a suitable key, as 18', the latter having been inserted into the key-passage 17, (Fig. 3), andthereafter turned to occupy approximately the position it is shown as occupying in Fig. 7 whereupon, sliding of thetumbler in one direction in the housing of our improved lock, and as for locking the bolt 5 against retraction as hereinbefore explained, is effected upon said key being further duly turned, as will be readily understood, while reverse movement of said tumbler, as for unlocking said bolt, may be efltected by reversely turning said hey.

QO-is a lug turned inwardly from the front wall of the housing of the device, and projecting into an elongated opening 20, with which the tumbler 17 is provided, the material of said tumbler, at the upper edge of its said opening, having a notched formation, whereby is provided a detent 21, preferably V-shaped, approximately, and the point oi. which rides upwardly upon, across and downwardly beyond the adjacent lug 20, all under the resilient stress of themain spring 8, exerted downwardly op the feet 21' with which said tumbler is provided, and indir'ectly, in this instance, through the medium of the bridge-piece S, which spans the space between and bears downwardly on said feet, the tumbler atorenamed being duly shift/ed.

Reversal otthc foregoing operation of the parts now under consideration, takes place upon the tumbler being reversely shifted; and to the end that any tendency to objectionable centering of the point ot'the detent 21 on the lug 20, may be obviated, it

best that the primary recess 19 be flanked by a secondary recess 22 for the reception, in its turn, otthe lugiltl of the key made use of, and for further shitting oil the tllmblci,

as will be apparent.

lVhendesired that the tumbler of our improved lock shall be finger-operable, the same may be of a length exceeding the dimension of the housing atorenamed, taken inl'ine therewith, and'in which housing the tumbler operates, said tumbler hence affording a finger-segment, as 22, protruding from such housing as by way of a suitable opening 23 formed, say, in one end-wall thereof, all as clearly shown in Figs. 2 and 3 of the drawing. Or, the tumbler may be provided with an appropriate finger-button, as 23',

whose shank works within a suitable opening 24: formed, say, in the front wall of the housing of the look.

It will be seen from the foregoing that the user, grasping either the finger-segment 22 or finger-button 23', may, by finger-pressure, manipulate the tumbler f our improved lock in a manner to lock the bolt thereof against retraction; or, he may do this indirectly through the medium of a suitable key, as hereinbefore explained.

In the event, therefore. that the user shall need to hastily close and lock the hand-bag to which our improved lock may be applied, and where the use of a key for such purpose would entail, say, theloss of valuable time, the user promptly shifts, by finger-pressure, as hereinb-efore explained, the tumbler aforenamed and then promptly closes the hinged frame-sections of the hand-bag; whereupon the tenon of the hasp secured, as in common practice, to one of said framesections, snaps into engagement with its co-operating catch 9'; such action of the parts being permissible by reason of the fact that said catch is operable independently of the bolt aforenamed, and which supports it, as hereinbefore explained. The handbag thus locked may be later unlocked, at the users leisure, through the medium of a key as above explained.

In the use of a key in connection with our improved lock, such lcey is inserted into the key-passage 17 in the usual manner, by way of the key-hole 14:, said key-passage being first brought into registry with said lrey hole; said hey is then passed downwardly along said key-passage through the medial section 11', by way of the key-way 15 formed therein, the key-way finder being used to find said key-way whatever its position relative to the keyhole 14 may be; and the lug of the key, the latter being turned, being used for operating the tumbler 17', as hereinbefore explained.

It will be seen that our improved lock. is not only well adapted for the purposes for which it is intended, but that the same may be modified to considerable extent without material departure being made from the spirit and principle of our invention as set forth in and coming within the scope of the claims hereto appended.

e claim as our invention:

1. A hand-bag lock comprising suitable lock-mechanism and a housing therefor, said lock-mechanism including an operating-bolt supporting an independently operable spring-controlled catch engageable with the tenon of a hasp.

2. A hand-bag look comprising suitable lock-mechanism and a housing therefor, said lock-mechanism including a bolt, a tumbler and a main spring, the latter interposed between said bolt and said tumbler and exerting at one and the same time a yielding stress upwardly on the bolt and downwardly on the tumbler.

3. A hand-bag look comprising suitable lock-mechanism and a housing therefor, said lock-mechanism including a bolt, a tumbler fitted with feet, a bridge-piece positioned on said feet and a main spring, the latter interposed between said bolt and said bridgepiece and exerting at all times a yielding stress upwardly on the bolt and downwardly on said tumbler, through the medium of said bridge-piece.

4. A hand-bag lock comrnrising suitable lock-mechanism and a housing therefor, the latter having an inturned lug, said lockmechanism including a spring-controlled tumbler having an opening into which projeots the lug aforenamed and having a detent formed at one edge of its said opening, said detent co-operating with said lug.

5. A hand-bag lock comprising suitable lock-mechanism and a housing therefor, said housing having a lateral opening and said mechanism including a spring-controlled bolt and a shouldered tumbler, the latter shif'table laterally within and relatively to said housing, to bring the shoulder thereof into and out of locking relation to said bolt, and having a finger-piece formed thereon, and lying in registry with the plane of movement thereof, said fingenpiece protruding from said housing by way of the lateral opening formed therein.

6. A handbag lock comprising suitable lock-mechanism and a housing therefor, said lock-mechanism including a bolt having a lateral, horizontal section and a returned horizontal terminal, the latter underlying the former; a catch engageable with a hasp, operating in said section and said terminal jointly and fitted with a collar; and a resilient element, the latter positioned between said terminal and said collar and yieldingly controlling said catch.

7. A hand-bag lock comprising suitable lock-mechanism and a housing therefor, the latter having a centering-spindle rising fixedly from the base thereof, said lock-mechanism including a spring-controlled bolt operating on said spindle and having a key way formed through its medial section; a depressible finger-piece rising from said medial section and having a key-hole formed in its crown; and a key-way finder, the latter telescopically engaging said centering-spindle, extending rotatably upwardly through said medial section to and into the crown of said finger-piece, and provided with a longitudinal key-passage, open at its top, and adapted, upon said key-finder being rotated,

to be brought into registry with said keyhole and with said key-Way, respectively.

8. A hand-bag lock comprising suitable lock-mechanism and a housing therefor said lock-mechanism including a bolt, a tumbler key-operable or finger-operable at the 0ption of the user and whereby the bolt may be locked against retraction; and a main spring, said main spring simultaneously controlling said bolt and said tumbler, and the latter slidable laterally Within and relatively to the housing.

9. For a hand-bag lock a tumbler compris- BRODIE J. RICHARDSON CLAIRE S. BARBER. 

